Ella Fitzgerald - Black Coffee - 1960

Ella Jane Fitzgerald (April 25, 1917 – June 15, 1996) was an American jazz singer, sometimes referred to as the "First Lady of Song", "Queen of Jazz", and "Lady Ella". She was noted for her purity of tone, impeccable diction, phrasing, timing, intonation, and a "horn-like" improvisational ability, particularly in her scat singing.

Fitzgerald won thirteen Grammy Awards, and received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1967. In 1958 Fitzgerald became the first African American female to win at the inaugural show. Other major awards and honors she received during her career were the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts Medal of Honor Award, National Medal of Art, first Society of Singers Lifetime Achievement Award (named "Ella" in her honor) Presidential Medal of Freedom, and the George and Ira Gershwin Award for Lifetime Musical Achievement, UCLA Spring Sing, and the UCLA Medal (1987). Across town at the University of Southern California, she received the USC "Magnum Opus" Award which hangs in the office of the Ella Fitzgerald Charitable Foundation. In 1986, she received an honorary doctorate of Music from Yale University. In 1990, she received an honorary doctorate of Music from Harvard University.

I'm feeling mighty lonesome
I haven't slept a wink
I walk the floor and watch the door
And in between I drink
Black coffee
Love's a hand me down brew
I'll never see a Sunday
In this weekday room
I'm talking to the shadows
From one o'clock to four
And Lord, how slow the moments go
When all I do is pour
Black coffee
Since the blues caught my eye
I'm hanging out on Monday
My Sunday tear's too dry
Now a man is born to go a lovin'
A woman's born to weep and fret
To stay at home and tend her oven
And drown her past regrets
In coffee and cigarettes
I'm mournin' all the morning
Mournin' all the night
And in between it's nicotine
And not much hard to fight
Black coffee
Feelin' low as the ground
It's driving me crazy just waiting for my baby
To maybe come around
Around
This waiting for my baby
To maybe come around

Songwriters: Al Hoffman / Maurice Sigler / Al Goodhart